This study explores the effects of the two-generation program Career"Advance"--which combines education and training for parents in healthcare with Head Start for children--on children's academic, language, mathematics, and inhibitory control followed for 3 years. The sample (collected in Tulsa, Oklahoma from 2011 to 2018) includes 147…

Many assume that cognitive and linguistic processes, such as semantic knowledge (SK) and self-regulation (SR), subserve learned skills like reading. However, complex models of interacting and bootstrapping effects of SK, SR, instruction, and reading hypothesize reciprocal effects. Testing this "lattice" model with children (n = 852)…

This study examined whether children’s difficulties with stage-salient tasks served as an explanatory mechanism in the pathway between their insecurity in the interparental relationship and their disruptive behavior problems. Using a multimethod, multi-informant design, 201 two-year-old children and their mothers participated in 3 annual…

Panel mediation models and fixed-effects models were used to explore longitudinal relations among parents' reactions to children's displays of negative emotions, children's effortful control (EC), and children's math achievement (N = 291; M age in fall of kindergarten = 5.66 years, SD = 0.39 year) across kindergarten through…

This study examined bidirectional associations between mothers' depressive symptoms and children's externalizing behavior and whether they were moderated by preschool-age effortful control and gender. Mothers and teachers reported on 224 primarily White, middle-class children at ages 3, 5, and 10. Effortful control was assessed via…

Executive control (EC) is related to mathematics performance in middle childhood. However, little is known regarding how EC and informal numeracy differentially support mathematics skill acquisition in preschoolers. A sample of preschoolers (115 girls, 113 boys), stratified by social risk, completed an EC task battery at 3 years, informal numeracy…

Longitudinal relations among ego-resiliency (ER), effortful control (EC), and observed intrusive parenting were examined at 18, 30, and 42 months of age ("Ns" = 256, 230, and 210) using structural equation modeling. Intrusive parenting at 18 and 30 months negatively predicted EC a year later, over and above earlier levels. EC at…

This study examined physiological, emotional, and attentional regulatory functions as predictors of self-regulation in 125 infants followed 7 times from birth to 5 years. Physiological regulation was assessed by neonatal vagal tone and sleep-wake cyclicity; emotion regulation by response to stress at 3, 6, and 12 months; and attention regulation…

The effects of geographic variations in cost of living and family income on children's academic achievement and social competence in first grade (mean age = 86.9 months) were examined, mediated through material hardship, parental investments, family stress, and school resources. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten…

Examined longitudinal relations of observed parental warmth and positive expressivity and children's effortful control and ego control with children's high versus low emotional expressivity. Found that moderate child expressivity related to high effortful control. Children's ego overcontrol mediated relations between parental warmth/positive…

Live behavioral and televised behavioral models were the most effective, and live verbal models were the least effective. The effects of the deviant models were more stable over time than the effects of the conforming models. (Authors)

Examined the moderating role of individual differences in negative emotionality in the relations of behavioral and attentional regulation to externalizing problem behaviors. Found that at two ages behavioral dysregulation predicted externalizing behavior problems for children both high and low in negative emotionality, whereas prediction of…

Examined influence of perceived self-efficacy for affect regulation with older adolescents. Found that self-efficacy to regulate affect related to high efficacy to manage academic development, resist social pressures for antisocial activities, and engage with empathy in others' emotional experiences. Perceived self-efficacy for affect regulation…

Tested a model linking maternal/family characteristics to child cognitive and psychosocial competence in African-American 6- to 9-year olds in rural single-mother-headed households. Found that maternal education, religiosity, and financial resources were linked with parenting style, mother-child relationship, and maternal school involvement.…